The leaves are made up of several dark green lobed leaflets, each one to three centimeters wide.

From each leaf-bearing node grows an inflorescence of one to three flowers with narrow petallike sepals in shades of light yellow.

C. pauciflora is a woody vine with nodes that produce leaves of three leaflets.

The plant is native between the Little San Bernadino Mountains and Baja California.

The plant is found in dry chaparral areas under 1300m in altitude, and is intermediate to its close relative Clematis lasiantha[4].